start." At the same time, therefore, that it must be allowed more natural to excuse the proud looks of the high than the proud looks of the low, still it is no bad caution to beware of giving easy faith to reports against those whom so many unsuccessful people are interested to decry; for though fortune can do mighty things amongst us, and make great men in this world, she cannot make friends. If caution be necessary for such as are only lookers on upon these sudden changes in the scene of life, how much more wary should he be who, by fortune's favour, is the actor in it! Time past and present so abounds in examples to put him on his guard that, if he will not profit by example, what hope is there that precept will avail? That any man should grow arrogant who has once been dependent is as unaccountable for the folly of the thing as it is for the baseness of it; it is as if a pedagogue should turn tyrant, because he remembers to have smarted under the lash of the master when a schoolboy: and yet there seems a principle in some natures that inclines them to this despicable species of revenge, by which they sacrifice all claim to reason, reputation, or religion. Dionysius, though the cruelest of all tyrants, had moderation in a private station, and made a good and patient schoolmaster; he handled the sceptre like a rod, and the rod as he should have done a sceptre. Are we to conclude from this and other instances, that humanity may be learned by those who descend from power, but that men become tyrants by ascending to it? Is there in nature any thing so ridiculous as pride, so self-destructive, so absurd? The man who rises out of humble life must have seen it, felt it, and remarked its folly; he must have been convinced that pride deprives itself of its own proper object: for every proud man, who assumes a superiority on the score of rank, or wealth, or titles, forfeits that better interest with mankind which would have credited him for superiorities of a far nobler quality than those on which he grounds his silly arrogance. How strange is it, therefore, when the man who has seen through the weakness of this passion in others, whilst below them in condition, should fall into the same folly when he rises to be their equal! And yet it happens every day. What is so hateful to a poor man as the purse-proud arrogance of a rich one? Let fortune shift the scene, and make the poor man rich, he runs at once into the vice that he declaimed against so feelingly these are strange contradictions in the human character. One should have thought that Pope Sixtus V. might have recollected himself enough to be humble, though Pasquin had never reminded him of it; but neither he, nor Becket, nor Wolsey, had any moderation in his spirit, though professing a religion whose very essence is humility. : In modern times, the philosopher's stone seems to have been found by our adventurers in the East, where beggars have become princes and princes have become beggars. If Ben Jonson was now living, could he have painted these upstart voluptuaries more to the life than by the following animated description? "I will have all my beds blown up, not stuff"d. I'll have of perfume, vapour'd 'bout the room, My footboy shall eat pheasants; I myself will have Q. And do you think to have the stone with this? "A. No, I do think to have all this with the stone." ALCHYMIST. These are strong colours; and though he has dipped his pencil pretty liberally into the pallet of the ancients, he has finely mixed the composition with tints of his own; to speak in the same figure, we may say of this sketch, that it is in the very best style of the master. As I should be loath, however, to offer none but instances of the abuse of prosperity, I am happy in recollecting one very singular example of the contrary sort, though I go back to times far distant from our own to fetch it. PISISTRATUS TO SOLON. "I am neither without example in seizing the tyranny, nor without claim; for as much as I derive from Codrus, and take no more by force than I should have inherited by right, if the Athenians had never violated those oaths of allegiance which, in times past, confirmed the prerogative of my ancestors. I live here without offence towards men or gods; neither transgressing your laws myself nor permitting others to transgress them. Judge, therefore, if the constitution you have given to Athens is not safer under my administration than if intrusted to the discretion of the people: no man suffers wrong some occasion, not recorded, to break out into the most virulent abuse and insult: Pisistratus, who had made no reply to his invectives, fearing that the festivity of his guests should be interrupted by the misconduct of Thrasippus, who was now got up and leaving the room, rose from his seat and entreated him to stay, assuring him that nothing he had said should be remembered to his disadvantage; instead of being pacified by an act so gracious and condescending, the brutal drunkard became more furious, and, after vent under my government, nor do I expect any new contributions from my people, contenting myself with the tenths of their produce, as by ancient usage established; and these I apply not to my own coffers, but to those of the state, for defraying civil and religious expenses, and as a provision for the future exigencies of war. Against you, Solon, I harbour no ill will, convinced that, in your opposition to my measures, you acted upon public, not personal motives: you could not foresee what use I was to make of power, and if you could have foreseen it, I willing all the foulest words a heated imagination persuade myself you would neither have traversed my interests, nor withdrawn yourself from your country; return, therefore, I conjure you, return to Athens, and believe me, on the word of a king, you have nothing to fear from Pisistratus, who has not the heart, as you well know, to annoy even his enemies, much less so excellent a citizen as Solon: come, then, if you are so disposed, and be received into the number of my dearest friends; but if you are resolved against returning, remember it is your own choice: and if Solon is lost to his country Pisistratus is acquitted of being the cause of it. Farewell." SOLON TO PISISTRATUS.: "I can readily believe that you are incapable of doing me any injury, if I was to return to Athens: before you were a tyrant I was your friend, and am now no otherwise your enemy than every Athenian must be, who adverse to your usurpation. Whether it is better to be governed by the will of one man, or by the laws of the commonwealth, let every individual judge for himself; If I could prefer a tyrant, certainly of all tyrants, I should prefer Pisistratus. As to my returning to Athens, I do not think it for my honour, after having founded the constitution of my country upon principles of free dom, to come home upon motives of convenience, and give a scandal to mankind by appearing to acquiesce under that tyranny which you have forcibly assumed, but which I, when voluntarily offered, thought proper to reject. Farewell." The above letters are to be found in Diogenes Laertius, but the learned reader knows they are generally supposed interpolations of the sophists; it must be owned, however, they are characteristic of the writers, and, though they ought not to be received as facts in history, may be read as a speech in Livy or Guicciardini. The following anecdotes will throw a stronger light upon the character of Pisistratus, and, as there is no reason to question their authenticity, they will be unanswerable witnesses to the point in ques tion : "At an entertainment given by Pisistratus to some of his intimates, Thrasippus, a man of violent passions and inflamed with wine, took could suggest, with a violence shocking to decency, and loathsome to relate, suddenly turned upon Pisistratus, as he was soliciting him to take his seat at the table, and spat in his face. Upon an insult so intolerable, the whole company rose as one man, and, in particular, Hippias and Hipparchus, sons of the tyrant, were with difficulty prevented from killing him on the spot. The interposition of Pisistratus saved Thrasippus, and he was suffered to go home without any violence to his person. The next morning brought him to his senses, and he appeared in the presence of Pisistratus with all proper humility, expecting to receive the punishment he merited. What must have been his self-conviction and reproach when he was again received with the utmost complacency! Penetrated to the heart with recollection of his behaviour and the unmerited pardon he had met with, he was proceeding to execute that vengeance on himself which he was conscious he deserved, by rushing on his sword, when Pisistratus again interposed, and, seizing his hand, stopped the stroke; not content with this, he consoled him with the most soothing expressions, assured him of his most entire forgiveness, and having put him at peace with himself, reinstated him in his favour, and received him again into the number of his intimates." Though it is scarce possible to find an instance of good nature in any man's character superior to the above, I am tempted to add the following anecdote, not only as a corroborating evidence, but from the pleasure one naturally takes in hearing or relating facts that make so much to the honour of human nature, and which inspire the heart with a love for mankind. "Thrasimedes, a young Athenian, had the audacity to force a kiss upon the daughter of Pisistratus, as she was walking in public procession at a religious solemnity; transported by the violence of his passion, and considering that he had already committed an unpardonable offence, he seized her person, and, forcibly conveying her on board a ship, put to sea with her on his passage to Ægina; the sons of Pisistratus pursued and overtook him, bringing him in person before their father: Thrasimedes, without betraying any marks of fear, immediately declared himself perfectly prepared to meet any E punishment Pisistratus should think fit to decree; for, having miscarried in his attempt, and lost the object for which he alone wished to live, all consequences became indifferent; disappointment, not death, was his punishment; and when the greater evil had been suffered, he had little apprehension for the lesser. Having said this, he waited his sentence: when Pisistratus, after long silence, breaking out into admiration at the resolution of Thrasimedes, instead of punishing his audacity, rewarded his passion by bestowing his daughter upon him in marriage." It is become a very gainful trade with our small-ware venders of literature to expose certain pamphlets in shop-windows and upon stalls in alleys and thoroughfares, which, if any police was kept up in this great capital, would be put down by the civil magistrate as a public nuisance; I mean Trials for Adultery, the publishers of which are not content with setting down every thing verbatim from their short-hand records, which the scrutinizing necessity of law draws out by pointed interrogatory, but they are also made to allure the curiosity of the passenger by tawdry engravings, in which the heroine of the tale is displayed in effigy, and the most indecent scene of her amours selected as an eye-trap to attract the youth of both sexes, and, by debauching the morals of the rising generation, keep up the stock in trade, and feed the market with fresh cases for the Commons, and fresh supplies for the retailers of indecency. If the frequency of our divorces is thus to be encouraged because they make sport for the lawyers, it may be wise to use no preventives against the plague or small-pox, because they cut out work for the doctors. Upon this principle a prudent father will breed up his sons civilians, and furnish out a library for his daugh- | ters with these edifying volumes: and if once they take kindly to their studies, there is no fear of their bringing custom to their brothers, and driving a trade as it is called, for their families. A convenient nest of these trials, neatly bound and gilt at the backs, will serve both as elegant furniture to their closets or bedchambers, and as repositories of science, like treatises on the If chances to make them skilful in the game. they are afraid of their husbands looking into their library, they may find out a hundred devices for lettering them at the back; they may call them Sermons to Married Women-or the Lives of learned Ladies-the acts of the British Matrons-Commentaries on the Marriage ActTreatises on Polygamy-or by any other title which their wit needs no prompting to devise. These Another circumstance of the times, which will greatly aid them in their studies, is, that they have it daily and hourly in their power to resort to the fountain-head for authority, and consult the very ladies themselves, who are the heroines of these interesting narratives. adepts in the art are to be seen in all places, and spoken to at all hours without hindrance of business, or knowledge of a bedfellow. As these disfranchised matrons or ex-wives keep the best company, and make the best figures in all fashionable circles, a scholar may receive instruction without slander, and prostitute her honour, without risking her reputation: a husband must be a brute indeed who can object to this society, and a wife must be a fool indeed who does not profit by it: when a new-married woman receives these privileged ladies in her house, she sees at once the folly of being virtuous, for they are the merriest, the loudest, the best followed, and the most admired of all their sex; they never disgrace their characters by a pusillanimous repentance, they never balk their pleasures by a stupid reformation, but keep it up with spirit, like felons that die hard at the gallows, to the last moment of their lives. Most of them marry again, and are so much better than their neighbours, as they are made honest women twice over; and that reputation must be more than commonly tender which two coats of plas ter will not keep together. As a further temptation to our young wives not to wait the tedious course of nature, but to make themselves widows of living husbands, us soon as they can, they will recollect that they ensure advantages to themselves thereby, which natural widows do not enjoy; for in the first place they avoid a year's mourning, which is a consideration not to be despised; in the next place they have precedents for marrying in the first week of their widowhood; and as it is the general practice to choose their gallants, they certainly run no risk of taking a step in the dark, which widows sometimes have been suspected to repent of; thirdly, they escape all the bickerings and jealousies which disturb the peace of families, by the common practice of ladies putting their second husband in mind of what their first husband would have done, or would have said on this or that occasion, had he been alive." Things were not so in my first husband's time-Oh that my first husband were living! he would not suffer this or that thing to pass, this or that man to use me after such a manner”—are familiar expressions in the family dialogues of second wives in the regular order; whereas the Irregulars never cast these taunts in the teeth of their spouses, because they know the answer is ready at hand, if they did. The Irregulars have also frequent opportunities of showing their affability and sweetness of temper, upon meeting their first husbands in public places and mixed companies: the graceful acknowledgment of a respectful courtesy, a downcast look of modest sensibility, or the pretty Autter of embarrassment, are incidents upon an unexpected rencontre which a well-bred woman knows how to make the most of, and are sure to draw the eyes of the company upon her. If, on the other hand, a lady on her divorce chooses to revive her maiden title, and take post in her former rank, the law will probably give her back as good a title to her virgin name as it found her with. She also has her advantages; for at the same time that she is free from the incumbrances of matrimony, she escapes the odious appellation of old maid. Such a lady has the privilege of public places without being pinned to the skirts of an old dowager, like other misses; she can also indulge a natural passion for gaming to a greater length than spinsters dare to go; she can make a repartee or smile at a double entendre, when a spinster only bites her lips, or is put to the troublesome resource of her fan, when she ought to blush, but cannot. ers, on account of their domestic insipidity and attachment to the dull duties of a family. This was once the general opinion which other nations entertained of our matrons; but upon a late tour through a great part of the continent of Europe, I found it was entirely reversed, and ideas more expressive of their spirit universally adopted. It may well be expected that the influx of foreigners, and the out-flow of natives, which the present peace will occasion, will not suffer the pretensions of our ladies to lose ground in this particular. Our French neighbours are certainly good critics in gallantry, and they need not now stand in dread of a repulse from the women of England, whatever they may apprehend from the men. Much more occurs to me on this subject, but these premises will serve to introduce an idea which, if the several ladies, who have stood trial, would club their wits to assist me in, might be rendered practicable, and that is, of reducing infamy to a system by rules and regulations of manners, tending to the propagation and increase of divorces in Great Britain. few loose hints occur to me on this subject, but I offer them with the utmost submission to better judges, simply as rudiments in the art; the refinements must be left to those who are professors. A "As early impressions are strongest and most lasting, I would advise all mothers, who wish to train their daughters after the above system, to put them in their infancy under the care of those commodious ladies whom we vulgarly call Mademoiselles, as the best forcers of early plants; under whose tuition young ladies have been known to get so forward as to have pretty notions of flirtation at the tender age of six years; at eight years they can answer questions in the catechism of gallantry; before they reach their tenth summer they can leer, ogle, talk French, write sonnets, play with the footman, and go through their exercise to admiration; I would then put them to their studies, of which the annals above-mentioned will be a principal part; the circulating libraries will furnish out a considerable catalogue, and Mademoiselle will Before I turned my mind to reflect upon these and other advantages so preponderating in favour of divorces, I used to wonder why our Legislature was so partial to suitors, and gave such notorious encouragement and facility to Acts of Parliament for their relief and accommodation; I now see the good policy of the measure, and how much the ease of his majesty's good subjects is thereby consulted. It is confessed there is a short monition in the decalogue against this practice, but nobody insists upon it; there are also some texts scattered up and down in Holy Writ to the same purport, but no well-supply them with French memoirs, novels, &c. bred preacher ever handles such topics in his pulpit; and if a fine lady should ever read a chapter in the Bible, or hear it read to her, it is very easy to skip over those passages, and every polite person knows it is better to make a breach in any thing than in good manners to a lady. Our English ladies, by the frequency of their incontinence, and the divorces thence ensuing, have not only furnished out a most amusing library to young students of both sexes, but they have effectually retrieved the characters of our wives from sinking into contempt with foreign At the age of twelve it will be proper to send them to the boarding school, and there they will have the opportunity of making female friendships with their seniors in age, by which they will greatly edify. In the holyday vacations they will correspond with their boarding school associates, and these letters should be sacred and inviolable, by which means they may carry on an intercourse of thoughts without reserve, and greatly improve their style. "When two years have been thus employed, they must be brought to London to be finished under the best masters, most of which should thirty and three volumes of Abulfagi, the Arabian historian, they may find the following story. Near one hundred leaves of the Papyrus have been expended in the relation, but I have been at the pains of compressing it into one paper. be recommended by Mademoiselle; and in their | oriental languages, shall choose to turn over the intervals from study they will be allowed to relax their minds in the company of their mother, by looking on at the card-tables, reposing themselves after their fatigue upon sofas, informing themselves of the intrigues of the town, qualifying themselves in a proper familiarity of manners by calling young men by their surnames, romping occasionally with the gallants of their mother, when she is out of sight, and, above all things, cultivating intimacies with their late school-fellows, who are come out into the world. "When their hair is off their foreheads, it will be necessary they should lay out professedly for admirers amongst the young rakes of fashion, and for this purpose I particularly recommend to them the tea-room at the Opera House, where I would have them stay out all the company, and then commit themselves to their gallants to find out their coaches, who will be sure to lead them through all the blind alleys, and never carry them to the right door till the last, by which time the carriages of these gallants will be drove off, and then common charity will compel them to bring the obliging creatures bome in theirs. "All this while I would have them put an entire confidence in Mademoiselle, whose good nature will accommodate them in any little notes or messages they may have to manage, and whose opinion in dress will be so indispensable that it will be proper to take her out with them to all milliners' shops, artificial-flower makers, and masquerade warehouses for advice. If the young fellows will come to these places at the same time, who can help it? Mademoiselle will go down to call the servants, and ten to one if they are not gone to the alehouse, and the coach is out of the way, in spite of all her pains to find it. "When they have made a strong attachment, and consequences are to be apprehended, it will be time for them to think of marriage, but on no account with the man of their heart, for that would interrupt friendship: any body who can make a settlement can make a husband, and that husband can make his wife her own mis tress, and every body's else that she pleases; Mademoiselle becomes femme de chambre, and when her lady is disposed for divorce, chief witness upon her trial; a picturesque scene is chosen for the frontispiece, the heroine figures in the print-shops, her fame is sounded in the brothels, and her career of infamy is completed." In the beginning of the eleventh century Abderama, the last descendant of the Samanian family, who reigned over the territory of Bucharia, was besieged in his capital of Bochara by Mamood the Great, who afterwards reduced all India to his command. This mighty conqueror, who may be styled the Alexander of the Arabian historians, made twelve irruptions into India, and in each expedition swept away as much wealth, and made as great a devastation of the human species, as Nadir Shah in his. Mamood was the son of the usurper Subuctagi, who expelled the father of Abderama from Samarcand, and reduced his empire to the possession of Bochara only and its dependencies. Such was the formidable general who sat down with his forces before Bochara, and such the hereditary enmity of these, inveterate opponents; Abderama therefore had no resource but to defend his citadel to the last extremity. Disabled by his age from active service, he put the garrison under the command of a valiant captain named Abdullah. This young prince was of the house of Katiba, the general of the Caliph Osman, who conquered great Bucharia for that victorious Mahommedan. Abdullah was the most accomplished personage of his time, of admirable qualities, and matchless intrepidity. In vain he challenged Mamood to decide the fate of Bochara by single combat; he was also beloved by Zarima, daughter of Abderama, and sole heiress of his crown; the beauty of this princess was celebrated through all the east; more rhapsodies have been composed and chanted in the praises of Zarima than even Helen gave a subject to. Our language cannot reach the descriptions of these florid writers; the whole creation has been culled for objects to set in some comparison with Zarima; but as the fire of their imaginations would seem like phrenzy to ours, I shall not risk a fall by following thein in their flights. In a furious sally made upon the army of the besiegers, Abdullah at the head of the Bocharians had singled out the person of Mamood, and pushed his horse up to the breast of that on which Mamood was fighting; the shock was furious on both sides. Abdullah received the point of his opponent's lance in his side, and Mamood was struck from his sadle to the ground by the battle-axe of Abdullah; the combatants rushed in to cover their fallen general, and victory was snatched out of the grasp of the brave Bocharian, who fell back wounded amongst his companions, and retreated unpursued into the Ir any of my learned readers, skilled in the town after a furious slaughter of the foe. NUMBER XIV. |